How Many Wishes
by Lady-Fantasmic
Summary: "I've learned every name to every star in the sky, but maybe stars just don't grant wishes to people without hearts."


so its been what, two years since I've posted anything? yeah, writer's block is a bitch, not that thats any excuse. This is just a thing i wrote at 2am with minimal editing, enjoy :)

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He came across the blonde by accident. It was late, and Zexion was finished with his work for the day, but Vexen kept trying to keep him for "just one more test, I swear". Frankly he was sick of it, and just wanted to retire to his room for the evening with a good book, however, seeing as he would be too easily discovered there it was out of the question. In a fit of near desperation, he'd teleported to the roof of the castle, assuming that Vexen would never seek him out all the way up there. It was quiet, and the stars were out, a peaceful evening accompanied by the soft strumming of what sounded like guitar strings.

Simple curiosity brought Zexion to follow the sounds across the castle to the source. Demyx was sitting with his back against the brick wall, cloak abandoned off to the side to reveal a simple black shirt and pants with his sitar in his lap, fingers absently playing with the strings as he gazed up at the sky. The soft light from the moon illuminated him in an almost ethereal sort of glow, as if he were an angel. He hadn't seemed to notice Zexion yet, but the slate haired man couldn't help but wonder what the other was doing all the way up here.

"It's a bit late to be having practice up on the roof, don't you think, Demyx?" he said, stepping closer to the blonde musician, whose hands fumbled for the briefest of moments before continuing on like always when Zexion came across him playing - Zexion wasn't the first to notice that when the blonde was playing, he seemed to be in a trance, oblivious to his surroundings. Demyx glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, a sheepish smile playing at his lips.

"I guess it might be, but i could say the same about you, ya know. I never took you for much of a roof-hopper, Zex." Fingers stilled on strings as Demyx turned his full attention to the shorter male, patting his ungloved hand on the concrete. "Well go on, as long as you're up here, you might as well take a seat. Its a nice night and I'm always up for some good company." The man laughed. Zexion, seeing as he was already there and had no intention of going back to his room anytime soon, gingerly took a seat next to the musician tucking his cloak under him as if it would provide any sort of buffer from the cool surface beneath him. The two sat in a comfortable silence broken only by Demyx resuming his playing.

It was usually like this between the two of them, and silence wasn't an uncommon occurrence - Zexion himself wasn't much of a conversationalist when he had work to do, and Demyx knew well enough not to bother trying to speak to him while he was busy - though Zexion quite enjoyed the conversations they did have, and he could say with confidence that Demyx wasn't as daft as he appeared, he just had a… different way of thinking about things. However now it felt different. Perhaps it was the time, with it being so late in the evening the two of them wouldn't have any responsibilities to keep them from speaking, words just seemed inappropriate for the situation, and neither of them wanted to break the calm night.

"So you never answered my question: what _are_ you doing all the way up here? Usually you're always down in the lab with Vexen." Demyx's voice was as soft as the tune coming from his sitar. He'd gone back to gazing at the sky again.

"As fate should have it, Vexen is precisely the person I'm trying to avoid. Under normal circumstances I would be in my room by now, but it would be far too easy for that man to find me and drag me back to the lab. I had assumed that I would be undisturbed up here, but it seems that that isn't the case." Zexion gave the blonde a wry smile he wasn't sure he even saw. "Now what about you? I'm fairly certain you don't have anyone after your head, so why hide up here by yourself?"

"Hey, i was here first, you can't get mad at me," Demyx said, his tone of voice and the grin that accompanied it made it clear he knew Zexion was joking, "but if you must know, I'm hiding from Saix for the time being because I might have turned in some half assed mission reports, and also i don't want to get sent out to fight again." Demyx slumped against the wall.

Zexion shook his head, "You need to stop doing that. You know how he is about the reports." Zexion was lucky in that most of his own work didn't involve him actually leaving the castle.

"I know, but i swear he does it on purpose. X-face knows I'm much better at recon than fighting." The blonde gestured wildly with his hands, sitar almost forgotten on the side. "So i thought I'd hide out here for a while. After all, nobody really ever comes up here anyway so it's a really good hiding spot. Plus the stars are really good inspiration for music." Demux hummed, and the two lapsed back into that comfortable silence they were accustomed to, and Zexion found himself more fascinated by the blonde musician sat next to him than the tiny pinpricks of light scattered across the sky. He'd always been intrigued by him, how he exuded more emotion than almost anyone in the organization, even though nobodies, by nature, didn't have the luxury of feeling anything. It was a good act, Zexion had to admit that much - never out loud, of course.

"Do you ever wonder," Demyx's voice roused him from his musings. His eyes had taken on a far off look, like he was thinking of being somewhere far away from the Castle that Never Was.

"Wonder, what, Demyx?" His own voice was hushed, mirroring the blonde's.

"Just how many wishes a star can give." That was… not what he had expected to come out of the blondes mouth. What an odd sort of thing to ask, Zexion thought as he glanced quizzically at the man sitting beside him.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, hoping that Demyx would continue and bring some sense to the question.

"I mean, I've learned every name to every star in the sky, and I've made wishes to them every night for as long as i can remember, but maybe stars can only give one wish, and there are no more left for someone like me." His tone had become distant as well, something that Zexion didn't like. He'd never seen Demyx like this, and he much preferred the smiling blonde to this.

"someone like you?"

"Like us, nobodies I mean. Maybe stars don't grant wishes to people without hearts." Demyx was very quiet now. "But i keep hoping that maybe there's one, just one star out there that can spare a wish for me."

"Its impossible, one person can't conceivably know all the stars in the sky. There are far too many." Zexion said softly, then added, "and believing in such things as wishes is simply childish."

"Maybe i am childish, but i want to believe anyway." Not once had Demyx taken his eyes off the night sky, and Zexion didn't know what to think about the direction the conversation had steered.

"so then, what do you keep trying to wish for thats so important?" He'd asked mostly to sate his own curiosity, after all whatever it was to put the happy blonde in such a mood must be of some importance to him.

"You'd think its silly." He'd brought his knees to his chest and was resting his chin on them, making himself smaller than the slate haired man, for once.

"I want to know anyway. I promise I won't think any different of you."

"You promise not to laugh?"

"Yes, Demyx."

"What i want more than anything - what I've wanted since even before i became a nobody - is a happy ending. Forget all this Kingdom Hearts nonsense, all I want is to love and be loved by someone who means more to me than anything else in all the worlds." For a moment, his eyes had a hopeful glint in them, but when he looked over to Zexion it was gone again. "Silly right?"

Zexion felt a tightness in his chest, "Demyx." He just about whispered the man's name.

"Please," The blonde said suddenly, taking one of Zexion's hands in his own, "Don't say what i think you're gonna say. Let me pretend that i can have all that, its all i have to hold on to." Confused blue met desperate green, and Zexion found he couldn't bring himself to say the words resting on his tongue _nobodies don't get happy endings,_ not with Demyx looking at him like that. He took in a shaky breath, but he couldn't find any words, for once, to rectify the situation. All he knew was that he didn't like this side of Demyx, who looked so helpless, so desperate not to hear the words that he knew in his mind were the truth, and Zexion wouldn't be the one to ruin it.

So instead, he gently maneuvered their hands so that he was holding onto one of the blonde's, and he brought it to his lips, breaking eye contact as he softly pressed a kiss to his knuckles, trying to convey every psedo-emotion that he wanted to express to the blonde in the simple act. Meeting the musician's eyes again, he gave a rare smile, "Alright." he said, before standing once more, letting Demyx's hand fall from his.

As he turned to leave, Demyx's voice momentarily stopped him, "W-wait, Zexion, where are you going?"

"To bed, Its late and I'm sure Vexen has stopped trying to find me by now." He said wryly, summoning a portal. "oh, and Demyx?"

"Yeah, Zex?"

"Keep pretending all you like, but you should realize that if you ever want to find this "happy ending" you talk about, it will take more than simple wishing to accomplish. After all, actions speak louder than words, so the saying goes." He could have sworn that as he stepped into the portal, he heard Demux quietly say "alright."

That night, laying in the dark in his room, his mind drifting between awake and asleep, he couldn't help but wonder himself _how many wishes_ do _stars give?_ The twinkling sky outside his window seemed to wink at him and he shook his head, deciding to contemplate the inquiry some other day.

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so theres that. Hope you enjoyed and I'll try not to let so much time pass before i post again.


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